Private insurance...

[SHRED]

...and big pharma have ruined our ability to access and/or pay for health care.

When health care is traded on Wall St., when you see prescription drug commercials on TV, something is terribly wrong.
The incentive has moved from care-based to profit margin based.
We have a health care payment system in America that is much more concerned with Wall St. than with the people on Main St.

When are we going to get relief?

---

[caledesi]

1. Well said! NT

[lonestarnot]

2. First we fight the cheat and win, the we take care of the cheaters.

[Warpy]

3. It's not just that, it's that health care reflects the true inflation rate

in this country since it's one of the things that is 100% produced here. While we've had Washington tinker with the CPI and take us from roast beef to hamburger and the cost of consumer electronics made overseas drive down the official inflation rate, the cost of health care refused to follow the Enronned numbers and persisted in inflating at its own rate.

Our wages have simply failed to keep pace with real inflation in this country, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the cost of healthcare.

Insurance companies and hospitals have screamed about cost cutting for decades, usually on the backs of their employees. Cost cutting has made our system dangerous for people who have access to it. Cutting the insurance rolls down to the younger and healthier clients has managed to cut off access to care for an increasing proportion of the population.

The main problems, then, are a concealed inflation rate and the fact that wages have been depressed for the last 40 years by successive conservative administrations from both parties.

Only a complete reversal in our economic system that favors the corporate over the citizen will turn this around. Single payer is a part of that reversal.

[raccoon]

8. Great post. nt

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

4. we recently had an event in my family that I am so bitter about that i can't

speak of it just yet, but I will say that as a result of this event, which we did nothing to bring on to ourselves, our medical insurance has jumped to $700 (and some change) a month. I am not joking, starting Oct 1, i have to come up with $700 a month to pay for medical benefits. $700. I am practically paralyzed with fear, and very very angry.

[SHRED]

6. Our country...

...places Capitalism along side of freedom and liberty, on the mantle of our ideals.
Deregulation has removed oversight so now we have Monopolies.

What a tragedy.
Sorry to hear that.


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[Donnachaidh]

7. try paying 1,100 per month for insurance

That's what we're facing. It's insane.

[MadHound]

5. When we get rid of the two party/same corporate master system of government

When both parties receive large amounts of money from the insurance industry and big pharma, neither party is inclined to kill the goose who is laying the golden eggs. Sure, they might fuss and fume and raise a stink on the campaign trail and in the media, but when push comes to shove, they will not bite the corporate hand that feeds them, but rather will kiss it instead.

This is one of the many reasons why we've got to get publicly funded elections, to get the insurance, pharmaceutical and other corporate money out of our government. Only after that happens will we make real progress on issues such as true universal, single payer, non-profit health care(which the rest of the industrialized nations already have), energy and the wide spectrum of policies that are adversely effecting our country and our people.

So while the Dems and the 'Pugs both make dutiful noise every four years about addressing such issues, little gets done and what does get done usually benefits corporate America while we're left with the crumbs.

[Selatius]

10. Personally, I don't see how we could get rid of the two-party system without serious confrontation.

The pre-existing parties have demonstrated that they are not serious at all about entertaining any reforms that could jeopardize their grip on power. Voting systems such as run-off voting like what France has or proportional representation or some iteration thereof like what Germany has allow for more than two parties to hold power. As far as holding power is concerned, a political party such as the Democratic or Republican Party would have to be politically suicidal to push through those reforms.

Political parties exist to win power, first and foremost. Asking it to give up power would be asking it to do the opposite of its reason for being.

It is like asking a monopoly if it would voluntarily allow a competitor into the market to compete. It will never allow that if it has a say.

This kind of reform will have to come from outside the existing system, and we're getting on difficult ground there because that means asking for, essentially, a new government to replace the old. In the past, this has often meant bloody, messy revolutions, but it could mean a peaceful one as well.

[Selatius]

9. The problem with private health insurance corporations is that they exist to make a profit FIRST.

Your health care, as a result, is a SECONDARY concern. If there is a situation where your health care gets "too expensive," they will find some legal way to drop you, and if they dropped you illegally, you probably don't have the financial resources to litigate them into the proper course of action, but by that time, your medical condition could be a lot worse and a lot more expensive than it would have been if they had simply OKed the cost of a medical procedure.

If you get cancer, you can almost bet that you are going to be driven into virtual or even bona fide bankruptcy even if you had health insurance.